Following my half-hour or so with singer Kenny Bridges and guitarist Hippy (as I shall refer to Chris Hughes for the remainder of this piece to keep him and bassist Erik Hughes clear), I was invited to stick around and join in the meet + greet. Moneen held a contest for every city they visited on this tour, to have twenty fans come in for a little pre-show schmoozing with the band. This is a strong indication of their unending dedication and gratitude towards their supportive fan base. Bridges and Hippy took charge of most of the proceedings, introducing themselves to each person in the room, inviting them to settle onto the couches and the mystery bed, pushing the furniture (with the fans on it) into the middle of the room so everyone would get cozy… One girl had a birthday, and the guys led the room in a rousing version of the "Happy Birthday" song for her. A few acoustic songs were played (including Hughes' rousing rendition of Michael Jackson's "Thriller"), and then the band handed out a bunch of posters and spent an enormous amount of time uniquely signing and doodling on all of them. They warned fans about how they deface their posters. But that’s the sort of thing that a fan of a band loves - their favourite musicians taking a couple minutes to scribble messages and goofy drawings all over a piece of paper.

Soon enough, the show was nearing its start, and the meet and greet crew were ushered back downstairs. I remained upstairs for a bit, getting some insight from drummer Peter Krpan about the touring grind and the amount of fun they had. Eventually, we wandered downstairs to take in the other bands for the evening, End This Week With Knives and The Fullblast. I, having still not recovered fully from a week of utter weirdness, relaxed myself momentarily with a rather escapist bowl of chicken gumbo. I sat at a table upstairs, sort of overlooking the stage, watching the goings-on from between the legs of people clustered around the railings. That sounded terrible. Not the bands, those were great. I mean my description of watching... never mind.

It wasn’t long before I took the party back downstairs, and made my way through the gently-roiling back end of the mob of kids crowding the stage front. I was surrounded by pins, shaggy haircuts, fishnets, and studded belts. Everyone was bubbling over with excitement, and the room was very loud. I’ve mentioned before that Mesa Luna usually hosts gentler parties than this one. The stage is not exactly set up for a rockin’ crowd, but I suppose the potential for complete destruction is part of what makes this type of show incredibly fun. The stage is fairly low, no barricades of any sort, with monitors littering the front, and speakers on tall stands at the sides. Off to the left, a few rickety folding tables ‘blocked off’ the sidestage area, which quickly became populated with fans and friends anyhow. I was just on the brink of the danger zone for the show, attempting to photograph in the dark room, and watching the chaotic breakdown of everything around me.

The audience was pretty rambunctious from the start, but things really started hopping a few songs in. Suddenly, the pile of kids, already pumping fists into the air and screaming along with Bridges onstage, began to lurch collectively back and forth. People fell. Then, feet were flying through the air. Bodies started careening over the top of the crowd, smushing a few people, some of them disappearing head-over-tail into the throng. Some of these surfers made it to the stage, where they fell off the audience’s hands and collided with mic stands and monitors and band members. Venue staff, crew members and the other bands sprang into action and lined themselves up along the stage edge to catch the humans who were being tossed about, yank crushed people out of the crowd, and attempt to keep the monitors in place. Requests for the crowd to move back were barely heeded, and only momentarily. While this all seemed a little alarming, a quick scan across the faces in the room showed that they were all having the time of their lives, even while being mashed to bits. Bridges on stage kept exclaiming how this was the best show he’d ever had, and how much he’d never have anticipated such an unbelievable audience.

The guys themselves put on quite the show. Having only seen them for about three songs two years ago, I was pleased to see them be so engaging. They probably spent more time in the air than on the stage. Hippy’s hair was vertical every time I glimpsed him across the stage. Guitar tech Haris joined in on a guitar part in the midst of the set. The band took audience requests. The guys from the Full Blast took time off from their monitor-holding duties to induce clap-alongs. The kids remained noisy and sweaty and rowdy the entire time. Sure, the tables beside me nearly collapsed a few times, a couple people’s heads came down hard on the stage, and a couple guitars were knocked over. The point is, everyone had so much damn fun. True to his word during our interview, at the end of the set, (after an encore of “The Last Song I’ll Ever Want To Sing,” which had been requested by someone in the crowd… a ten-minute soaring epic of a tune that rises and falls and rises again to massive glorious noise), Bridges announced he was going into the crowd for a “big wet hug,” before stepping easily off the monitors into the waiting, exhausted, and elated crowd. He cavorted around, hugging admirers and well-wishers for quite some time before he was even really visible again amongst the clamouring hands.

The crowd slowly filtered out, leaving stragglers and friends drifting about, waiting for a chance for a few words or a picture with the band. The venue staff tried in vain to get everyone out of the room for 45 minutes or so before I even took off myself. They were all still gracious and still goofing off, hugging everyone in sight and chatting away endlessly. It was a very familial environment. These guys weren’t kidding when they said they like spending time with people.

I ended up on my ride home with a girl who had been ditched at the show by her boyfriend and a couple other friends. She was slightly drunk, very happy about the show, and proudly displayed the bruises covering her legs and a few scrapes on her elbows from where she collided with the stage or other people. That’s dedication. It works both ways. Yep, a family. The Moneen family.

Elsewhere

By Andy Scheffler
Photos : Andy Scheffler
Published : May 21, 2004.